Saturday, November 28, 2015

The gunman in Friday’s shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood Friday was identified by Colorado Springs police Saturday as Robert L. Dear.

Police said Dear is 57. They also released a mug photo.

The shooter is from North Carolina, an unidentified law enforcement official told AP. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak about the ongoing investigation.

Three people, including one police officer, were killed in Friday’s attack. The gunman was taken into custody after an hours-long standoff and shootout. Authorities have yet to determine a motive behind the shooting or whether the gunman had any connection to Planned Parenthood.

Friday, November 27, 2015

Set aside politics and posturing about gun violence in America and there is still one indisputable fact: Alcohol use plays a primary role in gun violence.

A startling 48 percent of homicide offenders were reportedly under the influence of alcohol at the time of the offense, and 37 percent were intoxicated, according to an analysis by University of North Carolina researchers who reviewed more than 23 independent studies examining 8,265 homicide offenders in nine countries.

In the United States, guns are the leading cause of homicide and suicide.

"Both acute alcohol intoxication and chronic alcohol misuse are strongly associated with risk for committing firearm violence, whether that violence is directed at others or at oneself," said Garen J. Wintemute, founding director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis.

He added that of the nearly 400,000 firearm-related U.S. deaths in 12 years, "it is probable that more than a third of these deaths involve alcohol."

Thursday, November 26, 2015

A 24-year-old Pearsall, Texas, man will be sentenced Monday in the accidental shooting of a Port Huron woman.

Michael
Barrera pleaded guilty in district court Oct. 6 to carrying with
unlawful intent, a 5-year felony, and careless discharge of a firearm
causing serious injury or death, a 2-year high court misdemeanor.

Charles Joshua Kelly was sentenced in May to three to 15 years in prison for his involvement in the shooting.

Kelly
pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm while under the influence
causing death, a 15-year felony, and using a controlled substance, a
one-year misdemeanor.

Senior Assistant Prosecutor Mona Armstrong
said Barrera has cooperated during the investigation and voluntarily
returned from Texas for his September arraignment.

“You had
individuals who were intoxicated who were playing with (the firearm),
dry firing it, and that is a recipe for disaster,” Armstrong said.

“It
did not appear and does not appear that it was an intentional act to
harm someone but, regardless, there’s still criminal responsibility.”

Barrera’s lawyer, Dan Damman, said his client has remained in custody since his arraignment.“To
say he is remorseful is an understatement,” Damman said. “He very
clearly recognizes that his actions have done damage than can never be
undone.”

A New York tabloid is calling the National Rifle Association's platform "sick jihad" and the organization's leader "Jihadi Wayne"
after the organization fought legislation that would prohibit people on
the government's watch-list for terrorists and suspected terrorists
from purchasing guns.

The New York Daily News, a longtime NRA
adversary, has published two front-page stories during the past week
calling out the NRA and its "gun-loving Republican cohorts" for opposing
legislation that would block people on the watch-list from purchasing
firearms.

The tabloid's response comes after The Washington Post and others reported
that, over the past decade, more than 2,000 terror suspects legally
purchased guns in the United States — and a bill to put an end to it had
hit NRA resistance.

"These bills have rarely made it out of committee,
in part due to vehement opposition from the National Rifle
Association and its allies in Congress," Wonkblog's Chris Ingraham wrote
last week.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Later that month, a man attempted to help police foil an armed robbery at a south suburban Crestwood phone store by firing at the fleeing suspect. A police officer had to duck for cover when the unidentified license holder fired at the suspect.

None of those shooters was charged. Illinois law says firearms can be used in cases of imminent danger and in defense of self and others.